VII.  The Supply Chain Today

    A.  The Global Supply Chain Forum (Stanford - in partnership with the European Forum on 
        Global Supply Chain Management at Eindhoven University in the Netherlands and with the 
        Hong Kong Logistics and Supply Chain Forum in Hong Kong) have set out the following

        1.  Key Supply Chain Processes (in alphabetical order)

            a)  Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

            b)  Customer Service Management (CSM)

            c)  Demand Management

            d)  Manufacturing Flow Management

            e)  Order Fulfillment

            f)  Product Development and Commercialization

            g)  Returns Management

            h)  Supplier Relationship Management

            "A picture is worth a thousand words"

        2.  "Supply chain management software is possibly the most fractured group of 
            software applications on the planet. . . .  No one has a complete package."
            - Christopher Koch, "The ABCs of Supply Chain Management," CIO.com

        3.  Buy?  Build?  Blend!

            a)  Each of the Key Supply Chain Processes listed above has individual software 
                applications devoted to its process.  But, even the "big" integration packages 
                cover only a few of the processes listed.  So, the questions faced by supply 
                chain managers today are:

                  i)  Do we buy individual software applications for one (or more) of these 
                      processes?  And then customize where necessary to interface with the 
                      other systems that we already have in place (or are thinking of buying 
                      or building)?

                 ii)  Do we build our own individual software applications for one (or more) 
                      of these processes to better interface with the other systems that 
                      we already have in place (or are thinking of buying or building)?

                iii)  You can easily see that the answers will most likely be a blending of 
                      both buying and building!